PJT Partners Inc.

Good day and welcome to the PJT Partners Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Sharon Pearson, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Thanks very much, Todd. Good morning and welcome to the PJT Partners Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. I'm Sharon Pearson, Head of Investor Relations at PJT Partners. And joining me today are Paul Taubman, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Helen Mates, our Chief Financial Officer. Before I turn the call over to Paul, I want to point out that during the course of this conference call, we may make a number of forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, and there are important factors that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those indicated in these statements. We believe that these factors are described in the risk factors section contained in PJT Partners 2022 Form 10-K, which is available on our website at pjtpartners.com. I want to remind you that the company assumes no duty to update any forward-looking statements and that the presentation we make today contains non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are meaningful in evaluating the company's performance. For detailed disclosures on these non-GAAP metrics and their GAAP reconciliations, you should refer to the financial data contained within the press release we issued this morning, also available on our website. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Paul.

Thank you, Sharon, and thank you all for joining us this morning. Before we turn our attention to our financial results, please allow me to make a few comments. This month, the world has witnessed barbaric, unspeakable acts perpetrated by a terrorist organization against civilians in Israel. We express our outrage against such acts, and we add our voice calling for the immediate release of those held hostage. We see the extraordinary suffering of innocent civilians in Israel and Gaza, and we are heartbroken. In an effort to do our part, PJT is committing funds to aid humanitarian relief efforts in Israel and Gaza. Now turning to our results. We continue to operate in a difficult environment as higher rates, tighter monetary conditions, increased economic uncertainty, and a fraught geopolitical landscape all weigh on markets globally. These pressures continue to dampen capital formation and global M&A activity with equity issuance levels and current M&A volumes down to levels comparable to a decade or so ago. In contrast, this year the number of U.S. bankruptcy filings is tracking to levels not previously reached in more than a decade. Against this backdrop, our unique combination of businesses and collaborative team approach delivered superior outcomes for clients and outperformance for our firm. Our nine-month revenues grew 11% year-over-year with a record $825 million in revenues. After Helen takes you through our financial results, I will review our performance by business, provide more detail on our recruiting efforts, and update our full-year outlook. Helen?